Law Graduate Wins Historical Society’s Golden Quill Award

“Mystery Solved: Justice George W. Macrae,” published in the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society’s Historical Review Fall/Winter 2021 magazine, received the Florida Historical Society’s 2022 Golden Quill Award for an outstanding article on Florida history. The story of Florida’s fourth Supreme Court justice, about whom little was known before the article, was researched and authored by Kenneth A. Cutler, a Coral Springs attorney at Cutler Rader and vice mayor of Parkland. Cutler is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.

The Florida Historical Society honor recognizes a one-time in-depth article or special section focusing on Florida history, or the history of some part of our state, published in the preceding calendar year. Entries are judged on factual accuracy, clarity of expression and overall historical merit. The award was presented on May 19, 2022, in Gainesville, during the FHS Public History Forum.

A self-described history detective, Cutler was shocked when reviewing online biographies of Florida’s Supreme Court justices that there was little known about Macrae beyond his 1847 service on Florida’s highest court. Cutler also found out that the portrait in the Court’s gallery, commissioned in 1984, is entirely imaginary.

Then, using tools honed as a family genealogist, Cutler uncovered clues in 19^th century newspapers, surveys, census records, and letters to trace Macrae’s birth in Virginia in 1802 to his grave in Kentucky.

“I credit the dramatic growth in digitized historical materials with making it possible for me to establish a biography that eluded other researchers for years,” said Cutler, who received his J.D. from NSU in 1986.

Posted 08/14/22